I expect plenty of agreement with at least part of the last sentence.

§ July 21st, 2011 § Filed under this week's comics § 8 Comments

So I generally like Daredevil, though I haven’t been much interested in what’s been done with the character over the last, oh, decade or so. When this new Daredevil #1 came out this week, I didn’t have any intention of picking it up, but 1) just look at this gorgeous cover:


…and 2) Mark Waid was writing it, so I thought I’d peek inside at a page. Or two. Then three. Then four. Then…ah hell, fine, I’ll buy it. It does a great job of giving a fresh, non-angsty start to the character without forgetting everything that’s gone before, with the vast majority of the past decade’s storylines basically summed up by Daredevil with (paraphrasing) “yeah, things have been pretty crap for me recently.”

The one recent plot development that does carry over into this new series is the public exposure of Daredevil’s secret identity, and the problems that Matt Murdock has trying to deny everything while that particular genie slowly crawls back into the bottle. It makes for an entertaining read, as this way of dealing with the identity-outing is quite a bit more down-to-earth and (please pardon the expression) “realistic”-seeming than, I don’t know, amnesia spells or deals with the devil or the thousand different ways Superman protected his identity in the Silver Age. No Daredevil robots here!

Anyway, it’s a fun book, with more of a classic House of Ideas feel with its appealing combination of melodrama, exciting superheroics, humor and charm. Here’s hoping it can avoid any intrusive crossover company events and be left to develop on its own, without interruption.

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Also of note: Sergio Aragonés Funnies, filled with single-page gags, autobiographical stories, and funny shorts, all from Sergio’s masterful pen. The only thing wrong with this comic is that it only started now, and hasn’t been running for decades.

Rocketeer Adventures #3 – each issue’s been a mixed bag, though that makes it sound worse than I mean. It’s all fine and entertaining, with some standouts and other stories just simply “pretty good,” which mostly only suffer in comparison to Dave Stevens’ original Rocketeer stories. So, you know, there’s no shame in coming in second to those. I liked Ryan Sook’s lead story in this new issue the most, and while I think I would have preferred Joe Lansdale and Bruce Timm’s story to be an actual comic story and not just prose-with-pictures, I’m not going to complain about a new Joe Lansdale short story that happens to be illustrated by Timm. I mean, honestly.

Also, each issue has featured the “main” cover by Alex Ross, and a more limited cover reusing Stevens’ art from previous Rocketeer-related publications. I’ve been sticking with the Stevens covers…nothing wrong with the Ross covers, but it feels more…”right” to get the Stevens ones, I guess. Or maybe I’m just being a sentimental ol’ dope.

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